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It is not every day that you get the chance to meet a survivor of the Nazi holocaust. 'There are not so many of us left', she said during the interval while signing my copy of her book. That's how come when Dorit Oliver-Wolff came to give a talk in this small town in West Sussex, my wife and I went along. We were not disappointed.
From a Jewish family, age five and living in Belgrade at the start of the Second World War, Dorit learned early of its horrors when the city was carpet bombed in 1941. Her apartment building was partly destroyed and caught fire. With fighter planes strafing the crowd as they ran, dead bodies everywhere, she and her mother too had to flee.
After many family members were summarily shot for being Jews in Budapest, where they tried to settle, they too were hunted. Refusing to wear the yellow star, Dorit's mother wore a Red Cross nurse uniform as a disguise, the little girl acting in the role of her patient. At one round-up, they went boldly to a German officer, asking to have their papers checked first. 'I have to get this child to the hospital quickly', her mother explained. Thankfully, they were waved through without fuss.
Separated from her mother on one occasion, denounced to the Gestapo by her temporary landlady (they moved location frequently), Dorit was kept prisoner with many others in a crowded sorting house, a place where Jews and others were selected for deportation. Somehow, with the help of resistance workers, her mother engineered her escape. After a terrifying night, waiting cold and alone in a dark coal cellar, the little girl got out in a cart with the dirty laundry and they were reunited.
The two suffered years of appalling hunger, cold, hostile conditions, and constant fear but did manage, with many more miraculous escapes, to survive until peace finally came; and in front of us as we sat there spellbound was this remarkable person, so full of life and good humour, fresh from her latest excitement, an appearance on Channel Four's 'First Dates Hotel'.
Having natural musical talent from a young age (as well as a great facility for learning different languages), Dorit took great comfort in singing, passionate about becoming a successful performer. Stateless and with no passport, her adventures continued after the war. No less remarkable than her war-torn life is the tale of how she became an international singing sensation, as described in her riveting memoirs From Yellow Star to Pop Star.
Today, Dorit gives talks in schools, colleges, at hotel venues, literary gatherings, ladies' luncheons, and educational conferences. 'It is not because I want to remember the holocaust', she says. 'It is simply that I cannot forget.'
I feel sure that people can grow, in terms of courage, compassion, and wisdom, through facing adversity. Dorit Oliver-Wolff and her remarkably resourceful mother had little choice, but as an example of what the frailest of people can become, she must be one of her generation's finest examples. I feel blessed to have met her and heard this brave story from her own lips. Bravo!
Copyright Larry Culliford
Larry's next book, The Big Book of Wisdom, will be published by Regent Press in March 2020.
